


Could I get cat ears next time?

by AnnieShido



Category: Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Android Nanami Chiaki, Artificial Intelligence Nanami Chiaki, F/M, Post-Canon, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:15:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26199943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnieShido/pseuds/AnnieShido
Summary: The AI version of Chiaki Nanami had already gotten used to this whole "being technically dead" thing. That is, until she somehow finds herself stirring awake... Despite the fact she shouldn't be able to even do that without a body to begin with.One-Shot, Post-Canon.
Relationships: Hinata Hajime & Komaeda Nagito & Nanami Chiaki, Hinata Hajime & Nanami Chiaki, Hinata Hajime/Nanami Chiaki, Kinda - Relationship, Komaeda Nagito & Nanami Chiaki, Nanami Chiaki & Tsumiki Mikan
Comments: 4
Kudos: 54





	Could I get cat ears next time?

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written for my good friend, as a birthday gift for him! I apologize in advance if anyone is OOC, DR characters are a bit harder for me to write. Still, I hope it's an enjoyable short one-shot!

“Death” is an odd word to attribute to something that was never objectively alive to begin with. At least that’s what AI Chiaki Nanami figured. To her, as long as she made sure she could save as many of her friends and ‘classmates’ as she could, she was satisfied. She’d long since accepted that even if Junko’s AI self hadn’t intervened, she would never be able to truly live alongside them.

So for all intents and purposes, once Hajime and the others got out of the Neo World program, she laid herself to ‘rest’, putting herself into a state of stasis, figuring that would be it. She had done her job, and that was that, right?

That’s what she thought for the longest time. Of course, that is until she was stirred awake. Ever since she’d been executed, she couldn’t feel much of anything, but this time, for some reason, even as she could only see infinite blackness, she felt… air. Wind. Blowing softly on her body and face. She could feel herself sitting on something.

But programming purgatory was too abstract to allow these sensations, so, what gives?

Next came hearing. It was muffled, but she could hear _something_ . Too vague for her liking, but she could actually _hear_. It sounded like a… seaside shore? Voices too, maybe? It felt strange, hearing vibrations in her ears after feeling nothing for so long.

Finally, she saw. Colors. Blurry, but actually visible, the top half of her vision being a vibrant blue, and towards the bottom, a dark gray. She was extremely confused, while they were still muddled, she had essentially been returned all her senses, and she was _somewhere_. Did the Neo World Program somehow boot itself back up? Were her friends all stuck again? After all the effort she went through just to save them?

That was when everything became much clearer. She could feel the wind blowing through her hair with more intensity, she could feel that she was seating on something soft, a pillow maybe. Her hearing cleared up a lot more. “-There, her senses should be back to almost 100%!” A voice said with glee. It was familiar. Kazuichi?

And finally, her sight returned to her in full. She was staring at a beautiful ocean horizon, the gray of her vision having been the hull of a metallic ship. It rocked softly, rising and lowering itself with the waves. She blinked. She actually _blinked_. She tried to take a deep breath. It didn’t feel quite right, but it resembled a breath at least.

“She _can_ hear us, right?” Another voice. Mahiru’s, asked with caution. 

Kazuichi laughed nervously, “She should be able to! I did plenty of tests, but I can only trust they were enough… She’s a bit different than your usual machine, you know!” 

A malice filled giggle entered her ears, was it- “Of course the stinky simp wouldn’t be able to get it right from the get go!” -Yeah, Hiyoko. But, machine? What was she talking about?

“Everyone, simmer down. We don’t want to overwhelm her.” Byakuya’s voice came next, though it sounded softer, different. More personal. “I elect that we allow none other than the person she was closest to talk to her. It’s the most reliable course of action here.”

“You mean… me, right?” His voice cut through all others like a knife, making Chiaki tense up. She didn’t even know she could still do that. It was Hajime’s. “I’ll give it a shot…”

Footsteps began to sound off, getting closer and closer. They weren’t far to begin with, but the tension made their imminent arrival stretch out for what felt like eternity. She blinked again. She didn’t feel her eyes go particularly dry, so why did she blink? Was she trying to get a hold of herself again?

Her thoughts were cut off as he walked into her view. Hajime Hinata. The former reserve course student turned into the Ultimate Hope. Though his appearance didn’t quite match up with anything she remembered. His build was stronger, and he carried himself with more certainty. But his hair was not in the shape she thought it’d be. It was cut short, just like it had been during the simulation.

To top it off, his eyes were mismatched. One eye was his own, while the other resembled Izuru Kamukura’s. He stood in front of her for a few moments, looking into her eyes, before sitting down, leaning against the walls of the ship. 

There were no words exchanged between the two of them at first. Just silence. Not quite comfortable. Not quite awkward.

He finally broke the ice. “Hey… Chiaki.” His tone was soft, reluctant. “You _can_ hear me, right?”

She nodded slowly, eliciting a few gasps from people outside of her field of view. Her neck felt stiff, and not the kind of stiff you’d get from sleeping in an unusual position. “You must be pretty confused, huh?”

She opened her mouth to speak, but found it hard to get any sound out. She closed it, trying her best to put more effort into it, and tried again. “Did all of you reboot the Neo World Program?” She was lightly startled by what she sounded like. The sound of her voice itself was close enough to what she was used to, but the actual tone was lightly distorted.

She heard something along the lines of ‘I thought I used a good speaker!’ coming from someone, but she wasn’t paying much attention to them anymore. 

“O-Of course not, jeez, don’t even imply that…” Hajime ran his hand through his hair, looking nervous. “We all managed to escape, and with some help, we even… woke up all of your classmates. They’re okay again, Chiaki.”

Her eyes widened upon hearing that, she moved her arms for the first time, and leaned forward. That same stiffness from her neck was there. “Really?” She blurted out, her voice shaking a bit. Hajime was a bit taken aback by her reaction. She had only ever gotten close to this excited when talking about video games.

“Yeah! We managed to rescue everyone from their comas… Well, everyone except for you.” He paused. He looked down, as if he was trying to pick his next words carefully. “Even after I told everyone about who you really were, they… didn’t want to just leave you behind. So, everyone’s been spending the last few months trying to find a way to bring you back. And I think we finally did it.

“To tell you the truth, we were a bit inspired by Mechamaru, heh… We figured that bringing you back as just a program wouldn’t be what you deserved, especially considering everything you’ve done for us, so…” He reached into his shirt’s pocket, pulling out a small hand mirror. He opened it, turning it towards her. “Check it out yourself! With help from Kazuichi, and supervision from everyone to make sure he wouldn’t try anything _weird_ -”

“Hey!” Kazuichi protested, “I’m not TeruTeru! No need to be so rude!”

“-He built you a body. It’s the first official version, so, there’ll probably be a few kinks here and there, but, I think it’ll do for now. It should have most of the essential functions, so you hopefully won’t feel weird doing your usual things.”

Chiaki wasn’t entirely sure what to say as she stared into the mirror. She was seeing herself… But different. Her face was the same as usual, save for two lines running down her cheeks, extending downwards from her eyes. Her skin was duller, and her hair looked a bit more like a wig. 

But it was still her. Even the clothes she’d worn during the Neo World Program were on her. She had just been turned into a… cyborg? Or would the more apt term be android?

“Just like Raiden…” She muttered under her breath.

Hajime raised an eyebrow. “What was that?”

“This is…” Her lips curled into the small smile everyone had come to know. Hajime felt his breath hitch. “So this is the product of everyone’s efforts, huh? What you all came together to do… for me.”

Ibuki suddenly appeared out of nowhere, almost slamming into Hajime as she slid on the floor with her knees. Everyone followed suit as she grinned, sitting next to each other in a circle. “That’s right! I wanted Kazuichi to put in a music player so you could listen to music while you gamed it out, but they said it would be a bad idea!” Ibuki rocked in place as she whined, pouting exaggeratedly. She quickly shifted back into a chipper mood, “I did get to remake your clothes though! That was super duper fun!”

“I think that would have been too overwhelming for her, Ibuki…” Hajime commented, a nervous smile on his face.

“Maybe, but I think someone as Ultimate as Chiaki, especially this Chiaki, could have handled it.” Nagito commented. His voice didn’t have quite the hostile or sorrowful tone it had before. Chiaki’s eyes fell to his now robotic hand. “Oh hey. We match.”

Mikan was the next one to speak up, “U-Uh, I know you’re not exactly a human anymore, so I m-might not be of much help, but… if you ever feel off, don’t hesitate to tell me!”

She looked at everyone there. Even Ryota Mitarai was present, someone who hadn’t even become a Remnant of Despair like the others, was there. She couldn’t help herself, and smiled with more intensity than she was used to. 

She raised a hand to her chest. She noticed how warm she felt. Souda’s attempt at replicating body heat, probably. “This is all wonderful… thank you all. Truthfully, I mean it.”

Kazuichi smiled as he put his tongue out. “It’s no problem! Though if you’ve got any complaints or suggestions so far, let’s hear it! I’ll get started on whatever you need right away!”

Her smile faded, her expression instead replaced by a contemplative one. There was a long pause as everyone waited with bated breath. “Maybe…” She put her hand on the top of her head.

“Could you install little cat ears next time?”


End file.
